From the acclaimed novelist and editor of "The Believer" comes a wildly imaginative and emotionally intense novel about mothers, daughters, and the psychic damage women can inflict on one another.

From the Publisher:From the acclaimed novelist and The Believer editor HEIDI JULAVITS, a wildly imaginative and emotionally intense novel about mothers, daughters, and the psychic damage women can inflict on one another.

Is the bond between mother and daughter unbreakable, even by death?

Julia Severn is a student at an elite institute for psychics. Her mentor, the legendary Madame Ackermann, afflicted by jealousy, refuses to pass the torch to her young disciple. Instead, she subjects Julia to the humiliation of reliving her mother's suicide when Julia was an infant. As the two lock horns, and Julia gains power, Madame Ackermann launches a desperate psychic attack that leaves Julia the victim of a crippling ailment.

Julia retreats to a faceless job in Manhattan. But others have noted Julia's emerging gifts, and soon she's recruited to track down an elusive missing person—a controversial artist who might have a connection to her mother. As Julia sifts through ghosts and astral clues, everything she thought she knew of her mother is called into question, and she discovers that her ability to know the minds of others—including her own—goes far deeper than she ever imagined.

As powerful and gripping as all of Julavits's acclaimed novels, The Vanishers is a stunning meditation on grief, female rivalry, and the furious power of a daughter's love.

Praise

"[S]ubjectivity . . . is perhaps Julavits's greatest theme. In her books, the stories we tell--about ourselves, about the people we love and hate--can surpass or obviate the notion of objective truth." - Jessica Winter 02/2012

"One of the pleasures of reading novels is the possibility of stopping time and savoring, for a brief eternity, a character's deepest yearnings and illuminations. When Julavits pauses long enough to let us catch our breath, the results are frequently remarkable." - Cristina Garcia 03/18/2012

"Julavits's talent as a writer is evident in the precision of her observations." 04/09/2012